Rare t˘shi ky˘gen production of "Ehon Taik˘ki",
a drama about the tragedy of Akechi Mitsuhide, the "3-day ruler of Japan",
who killed Oda Nobunaga and was defeated three days later by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
This month production is in 4 acts but the original drama was in 13 acts, 1 act for each day of these dark events that occurred in the late 16th century.
Because of strict censorship, the authors had to change the names of the characters: Akechi Mitsuhide became Takechi Mitsuhide;
Oda Nobunaga became Oda Harunaga; Toyotomi Hideyoshi became Mashiba Hisayoshi.
This play shows Mitsuhide's emotional struggle, first trying to restrain his upstart lord Harunaga,
who fears nothing and even tries to rid the country of Buddhism and the Gods. But instead,
Harunaga insults him mercilessly and wounds him on the forehead with an iron battle fan.
The most famous act of this play, the tenth one, is still part of the current Kabuki repertoire: after assassinating Harunaga, Mitsuhide comes to see his mother,
but she refuses to forgive him for betraying his lord. Mitsuhide sees his son and mother both die before his eyes
as he tries to defeat his rival Hisayoshi. The leading role of this play was expected to be performed by Ichikawa Danjűr˘
but he unfortunately fell sick and had to be replaced by Nakamura Hashinosuke.